/lit/ - Literature

I see a lot of people interested in Book of the New Sun here. Some people are eager to jump in, others are intimidated. I've read the book about eleven times, so I just want say a few words and address people who are thinking about reading it or are just beginning.

Before you embark on your journey into the mind of a genius, you have to understand a few things that are very important. When we talk about Gene Wolfe, we’re talking about a man whose I.Q. could not be measured. Past 200, I.Q. tests get imprecise. We don’t know whether we’re dealing with a man with an I.Q. of 200 or 300 or what. When it comes to Wolfe-tier geniuses, the standard tests simply don’t apply. You see, Wolfe could have entered any field he wanted. He was a real-life Will Hunting. He could’ve been a doctor or a lawyer, or both, if he wanted. He could’ve been a pioneer in physics. He could’ve been a codebreaker for the NSA. But no. He decided to be a writer. He decided to devote his life to aesthetic beauty and to illuminating for us the way to live. That was the beauty and the tragedy of his life. In one way, it’s a blessing to have been born in Wolfe’s time, to be able to hear his voice in interviews, to hear him delivering his famous commencement speech, which is already transforming people both intellectually and spiritually. On the other hand, I will surely die before we know even half of the secrets buried within the labyrinth of Book of the New Sun. That I consider a curse.

It’s been forty-six years since Book of the New Sunwas published and scholars have only begun to come to terms with its full implications. This is what you must understand. Wolfe reverse-engineered not only the novel, but all of Western literature as well as language itself. Packed within Book of the New Sun is Hamlet, The Brothers Karamazov, Gravity’s Rainbow, Ulysses, and everything else. Hell, it even serves as an overview of human history, from dawn to today. It’s a book you could spend a lifetime studying. A lifetime spent in bliss, no doubt. It would be more worthwhile to spend one’s life reading and rereading Book of the New Sun than to achieve being “well-read” in the traditional sense.

I don’t say this to intimidate you, but to encourage you. You must understand that, on your first time through, you will not understand everything Wolfe is trying to communicate to you. Don’t worry. He knew things about life that we won’t discover for decades. Your job is merely to get on the road. In the decades to come, we may, if we’re lucky, discover scientific applications for the new ways of thinking Wolfe gave us. We may have to throw out science altogether. We simply don’t know. For now, we have to be content with our vanguard roles. We are the ones who will break the ground and loosen the soil for Wolfe’s future interpreters. This is not only our pleasure, but our duty. And for that, as Wolfe famously said, “I wish you way more than luck.”

>“Everything, whatever happens, has three meanings. The first is the practical meaning, what the book calls ‘the thing the plowman sees.’ The cow has taken a mouthful of grass, and it is real grass, and a real cow – that meaning is as important and as true as either of the others. The second is the reflection of the world about it, Every object is in contact with all the others, and thus the wise can learn of the others by observing the first. That might be called the soothsayers’ meaning, because it is the one such people use when they prophesy a fortunate meeting from the tracks of serpents or confirm the outcome of a love affair by putting the elector of one suit atop the patroness of another.
>"And the third meaning?" Dorcas asked.
>The third meaning is the transsubstantial meaning. Since all objects have their ultimate origin in the Pancreator, and all were set in motion by him, so all must express his will – which is the higher reality.”

what did he mean by this?

>>8506107
>mfw never gonna stop wolfeposting

>tfw wasted the last year feeling the feels about a normie girl and i'm just finally realizing what a nasty roast she is.
pretty liberating desu.

>there are people on /lit/ right now who don't like gene wolfe

http://io9.com/5109804/science-fiction-authors-that-lit-geeks-think-its-cool-to-read

Thoughts?

I am going to go and read now instead of continuing to post on /lit/

You should do the same.

ITT: Mind-bending novels.

I recently finished the first two volumes of The Book of the New Sun. It seems really unique within fantasy.